Our Black Sons Matter: Mothers Talk about Fears, Sorrows, and Hopes

by George Yancy (Editor), Maria Davidson (Editor), Susan Hadley (Editor)

Our Black Sons Matter is a powerful collection of original essays, letters, and poems that addresses both the deep joys and the very real challenges of raising black boys today. From Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice, the list of young black men who have suffered racial violence continues to grow. Young black people also deal with profound stereotypes and structural barriers. And yet, young black men are often paradoxically revered as icons of cultural cool. Our Black Sons Matter features contributions from women across the racial spectrum who are raising or have raised black sons—whether biologically their sons or not. The book courageously addresses painful trauma, challenges assumptions, and offers insights and hope through the deep bonds between mothers and their children. Both a collective testimony and a collective love letter, Our Black Sons Matter sends the message that black lives matter and speaks with the universal love of all mothers who fear for the lives of their children.

Contributions by Jacki Lynn Baynks, Shelly Bell, Deborah Binkley-Jackson, Meta G. Carstarphen, LaMar Delandro, Gretchen Givens Generett, Jane Anna Gordon, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Maria del Guadalupe Davidson, Susan Hadley, Carol E. Henderson, Dawn Herd-Clark, Elisheba Johnson, Heather Johnson, Newtona (Tina) Johnson, Jane Lazarre, Sara Lomax-Reese, Tracey McCants Lewis, Nicole McJamerson, Michele Moody-Adams, Elisha Oliver, Blanche Radford-Curry, Autumn Redcross, Tracey Reed Armant, Noliwe Rooks, T. Denean, Sharpley-Whiting, Treasure Shields Redmond, Sharyn Skeeter, Becky Thompson, Linda D. Tomlinson, Dyan Watson, Veronica T. Watson, Regina Sims Wright, Karsonya Wise Whitehead, and George Yancy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting, Race

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2016

About the author

George Yancy, Professor of Philosophy at Emory University, works primarily in the areas of critical philosophy of race, critical whiteness studies, and philosophy of the Black experience. He is particularly interested in the formation of African-American philosophical thought as articulated within the social and historical space of anti-Black racism, African-American agency, and questions of identity formation. His current work focuses on the theme of whiteness and how it constitutes a site of embedded social reality and a site of deep and enduring opacity, which is related to what he has theorized as white ambush. He is interested in the ways in which whiteness as an embodied phenomenon is a reality underwritten by historical forces and practices. Hence, he takes history seriously as an ever present force through which bodies are positioned. He is interested in themes such as white subject formation, white epistemic ways of knowing/not knowing, privilege and hegemony, and forms of white spatial bonding as sites of white solidarity and interpellation (or hailing). He is also interested in how such forms of white epistemic and bodily bonding are underwritten by white intelligibility. Yancy explores the theme of racial embodiment, particularly in terms of how white bodies live their whiteness unreflectively in relationship to the deformation of the black body and other bodies of color. He sees the two as relational. Within this context, his work explores Black Erlebnis or the lived experience of black people, which raises important questions regarding Black subjectivity, modes of Black spatial mobility, ontological truncation, and embodied resistance. He has theorized critical processes of what he terms suturing and un-suturing and how both concepts are linked to questions of embodiment and spatiality. Yancy is also interested in the intersection between philosophy and biography. More specifically, he is interested in questions regarding philosophical self-formation, that is, how philosophers come to believe what they believe and how such belief formations/configurations are linked to historical, cultural, racial, and gendered processes. Yancy is also interested in ways to engage philosophy dynamically, to practice frank speech or courageous speech, within and outside the classroom. Yancy's publications are varied and extensive. He has authored, edited, and co-edited numerous books, articles, and chapters. His work has been quoted worldwide, including in Turkey, Australia, South Africa, and Sweden. He is known for his powerful and influential conversations with philosophers on race at The Stone, New York Times. Yancy is also "Philosophy of Race" Book Series Editor at Lexington Books.

Reviews

[Steven]

Reading this book was an eye opening experience for me. It consists of a collection of essays, poems, letters, and reminiscences about raising black sons, all written by female black academics and artists. The title, "Our Black Sons Matter," alludes to the public deaths of black men and boys such as Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, etc as well as to the Black Lives Matter movement. Please note, this is a book about a politically charged topic by academics and artists. If you are hold a politically conservative point of view, expect to read things that are counter to your opinion.

The theme of almost every article is the maternal worry of these authors about their sons. In most cases, these are normal parental worries: How can I navigate the public school system to get the best education for my son? Will my son have good teachers who can believe in his potential? Will my son choose good friends? When should I have "The Talk" with my son and how should I do it? Will my son be safe when he leaves the house to be be with friends? Will my son be safe when he drives?

What was eye opening to me was how race modified each of these worries: Will my son's teachers punish him excessively for natural, boyish exuberance because he looks like others they consider to be mis-behavers? Will my son be more easily pushed onto the remedial track because he looks like the under-acheiving type? Does my son know to be especially polite to anybody who seems even remotely like a police-officer? Does he understand that his being seen in a predominantly white neighborhood at night could lead him to be questioned by police? When do I have "The Talk" and tell my son he will be more harshly punished by teachers and law enforcement than white kids will be, even if they happen to be doing the exact same thing?

In short, this book helped me see a different point of view. It was enlightening. If I were in the authors' position, I would probably think and feel the exact same things. I recently moved to a neighborhood that is at least 80% black and 10% immigrant. And I see a lot of the things this book talks about: parents worrying about the safety of their children, worry about the education of their children, and police everywhere. My favorite entry in the book was an essay titled "Black and Blue" in homage to the famous Louis Armstrong song. It was by a woman who is both married to a police officer and a mother of young black sons. She struggles with the divide of keeping her husband safe in his nerve-wracking, risk-filled job, and ensuring that her sons live to adulthood.

What this book lacks are good statistics. Each author takes it as undisputed fact that black men are pulled over more, arrested more, beat up more, and shot more often than white people who are doing the exact same thing. None of them attempted a good study of the available public and private data. The existence of the internet and freely accessible data doesn't necessarily lead to firm conculsions. A simple web search can lead to numerous studies by or reported by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and notable researchers such as Peter Moskos and Roland Fryer. Some conclude that black men are more likely to be shot by police and some conclude that they are not. Some use blatently awful statistical trickery such as can be found in my favorite book How to Lie with Statistics (I'm looking at you Bill O'Reilly). I've found the general consensus to be that black men are far more likely to be pulled, arrested more, and beat up than white men in similar conditions. Whether black me are more likely to be shot and killed in a manner that is not justifiable seems to still be debatable.

Speaking of statistics, I think it is important to remember that these authors are not a representative sample of the 41 million black people in the US. Nor does this book represent to the mothers who have actually lost their sons to the police. I'd love to hear their story.

[Jackson]

Though my experiences are very tangential to the writers of these essays, reading this confirms my fears that something is not right, and not sure how to change it!

[Nanaz Carlson]

I read through it quickly. Some of the essays were better than others. Some of the themes were repetitive.